Rape in Egypt is a criminal offense with penalties ranging from lifetime sentence to capital punishment. Marital rape is legal.[1] By 2008, the U.N. quoted Egypt's Interior Ministry's figure that 20,000 rapes take place every year, although according to the activist Engy Ghozlan (ECWR), rapes are 10 times higher than the stats given by Interior Ministry, making it 200,000 per year.[2] Mona Eltahawy has also noted the same figure (200,000), and added that this was before the revolution.
Rapes have been carried out during festivals and the Egyptian protests, and include the public rapes of women, and female journalists.[3] Egypt has passed multiple laws to protect women from both online and personal harassments [4] and approved a new law to protect women from violence at home.[5]
- ^ "2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Egypt". U.S. Embassy in Egypt. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
- ^ "EGYPT: Are attitudes to rape beginning to change?". IRIN. 2008-02-19. Retrieved 2013-09-12.
- ^ "Dutch female reporter gang-raped by 5 men in violent Egyptian protests". NY Post. 2013-07-02. Retrieved 2013-09-12.
- ^ "Online sexual harassment criminalized in Egypt | Egyptian Streets". 2014-06-05. Retrieved 2021-09-04.
- ^ "Egypt's new amendments for sexual harassment law ends different forms of violence against women: UN Resident Coordinator". EgyptToday. 2021-08-19. Retrieved 2021-09-04.